MountainStar Sports Group will guarantee in writing that it will pay for any costs above the city's ceiling price for the Downtown ballpark to maintain its current quality and design, the group's senior vice president said.

"It's always been the intent to provide a first-class ballpark to the citizens of El Paso, and instead of seeing it downgraded, we offered to cover all costs over the $64 million," Josh Hunt told the El Paso Times on Tuesday. He said the group is working on the final details of its proposal to the city and hopes to come to a final agreement in the coming weeks.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said he's confident the group will put its guarantee in writing, and said he doesn't believe the design will have to be changed.

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Cindy Ramirez

"I don't believe we'll have go to through all the value engineering," Leeser said about the process of changing materials, altering details or deleting features in the design to stay within the construction budget.

City officials had proposed that some amenities for the ballpark, including the right field building that's to house suites and a restaurant/bar, would have to be deleted from the stadium design if MountainStar did not guarantee it would pay for about $10 million in estimated cost overruns above the city's cap.

In a Sept. 17 letter to Hunt obtained by the El Paso Times, City Manager Joyce Wilson states that the city had not received any written documentation that guarantees MountainStar will pay for any expenses above the $64 million cap to which the city has agreed.

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Wilson stated that if no documentation was received before Sept. 23, the city would notify the construction company that it should "value engineer the project."

She also wrote that if some redesign was required, it could push back the completion date.

The ballpark is scheduled to open by April, although the ownership group has a backup plan and recently extended its stadium lease in Tucson where the team now plays. MountainStar, which owns the Triple-A Tucson Padres, will lease the city-owned stadium when it brings the team to El Paso under a new name and with a new mascot.

Hunt said the letter the ownership group presented to the mayor late last week was not directly in response to Wilson's memo. Instead, he said, it was in response to multiple requests it had received from Wilson, the city attorney and other city staff after the city realized the ballpark as designed was going to cost more than $64 million.

Leeser on Tuesday said that because of Hunt's assertion, he didn't provide a copy of Wilson's letter to the media this weekend when he released two others -- a letter to him from Hunt and his reply.

Hunt's letter, dated Sept. 20, stated that it had become evident the $64 million likely would not be sufficient to build the ballpark as it's currently designed. Hunt indicated the additional costs could be as much as $10 million and that the group is willing to reimburse the city for costs above the cap. In turn, the letter stated, MountainStar wanted to amend its ballpark development agreement with the city to provide the group with increased process controls, among other changes.

In his reply dated Sept. 21, Leeser stated that he could not support the proposed changes to the agreement.

On Monday, the city held a news conference in which Leeser said the city would not spend any additional money on the ballpark. Hunt said MountainStar was not asking for extra money, but rather that the letter was intended to lay the groundwork for how it would pay for costs above $64 million. The letter gave no indication on how the group proposed to do that, other than to say it would reimburse the city for overruns.

Leeser said he perceived the letter as a request for the city to pay for the cost increases and wait to be reimbursed later.

"That's what the letter said," Lesser said, "that he wanted the city to fund the projects and then when they were completed he would reimburse us."

Hunt said that MountainStar is not asking for any amenities or changes not previously approved by the city and the group, and that by contract, the city should be responsible for cost overruns.

Under the development agreement, cost overruns refers to the amount by which the ballpark costs exceed the budget except when the excess is at the "request, act or omission of the club," including change orders.

"We have not changed anything to the plans since the June agreement," Hunt said.

Hunt would not commit to say that the upcoming proposal won't include any changes to its development or lease agreements with the city, however.

"We're confident we are going to get through any issues and deliver the park that's been promised," Hunt said.

Enclosed in Wilson's letter was a list of proposed changes that would save more than $10.2 million from the construction price, including up to $2.4 million by eliminating the right field building, $1.2 million by reducing the number of suites to 20, and $1.2 million by cutting out food service equipment.

Other items on the list include reducing the finished floor elevation by 20 percent, which would save $900,000; and deleting the splash zone and water feature, which would save more than $300,000. Other items include replacing materials such as masonry with brick and picket rails with chain-link fencing, replacing stainless steel hinges with chrome plated hinges, and changing locker room equipment such as benches and lockers made of custom wood to store-bought wood or metal furnishings.

"Even with the proposed changes, the city believes that the ballpark meets the minimum requirements and the quality standard as defined in the development agreement," Wilson wrote.

Hunt said making any of those changes would impact the quality of the ballpark, whose design included those features since the schematics were developed early this year and approved by the city and the group in June.

Modifying the design at this point would impact the completion date, Wilson wrote in her letter. Additionally, factors that could impact the cost cuts include materials that cannot be returned, restocking fees, delay claims or other indirect costs.

Hunt said he believes those are moot issues and said he expects to have a final proposal on how it would pay for cost overruns to the city within 10 days.

"Some costs have come in higher," Hunt said. "But our focus is working on building a first-class ballpark, and that's what we'll deliver."

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